Thursday, May 14, 2009

Pony ride

There’s nothing worse than the “pony ride” assignment. The public relations or as we call them pony ride (pr) assignments are usually nothing more than glorified photo ops for some public official. Today’s groundbreaking was a good example as San Francisco mayor and gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom traveled to Tracy for the groundbreaking of a water treatment plant outside town that serve the Bay Area.Now this is the kind of assignment that a reporter wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot-pole but they will stick a photographer out there without batting an eye lash. It was your typical grip and grin, speech making event with plenty of opportunities crafted especially for the camera. The highlight of the event was the mayor opting for the controls of a backhoe instead of the handle of a gold-painted shovel for the ever popular turning-over-the-dirt photo.